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HALIFAX – A 55-year-old Nova Scotia man has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for sexually abusing his two young daughters over a 10-year period.

A Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruling released Tuesday says the incidents, which occurred between 1990 and 1999, only came to light when the oldest daughter reported her experiences during counselling.

The accused pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual interference.

The written decision by Justice Mona Lynch says the man started touching his older daughter for a sexual purpose when she was two-and-a-half years old, with the prosecution estimating he abused her at least 50 times over that period.

Lynch says the father threatened the girl by telling her the family would break up if she told anyone — a responsibility Lynch says “should not have been put on a child.”

The abuse stopped and then the man began touching his younger daughter, who was three-years-old.

The man’s wife and mother both knew about the abuse after the man told them he had stopped, and the decision says he didn’t touch his children or anyone else “as far as we know, for over 17 years.”

Lynch said the blame solely lies with the accused.

“There is no sentence that I can give that would give the older daughter and the younger daughter back what was taken from them,” Lynch wrote.